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social media fuchs 3E_aw.indd 2 09/10/2020 11:12 00_FUCHS_3E_FM.indd 1 12/21/2020 3:31:36 PM ‘In the fast-changing world of social media, it is imperative to have a text that changes with the times. With several new chapters covering Big Data, Trump, the challenge from China, platform capitalism and more, this thoroughly revised third edition of Social Media does just that, even as it retains a strong commitment to critical theory, democratic values, and digital activism.’ Vincent Mosco, author of The Smart City in a Digital World 00_FUCHS_3E_FM.indd 2 12/21/2020 3:31:36 PM Christian fuchs social me a criticaldia introduction third edition fuchs 3E_aw.indd 3 09/10/2020 11:12 00_FUCHS_3E_FM.indd 3 12/21/2020 3:31:37 PM SAGE Publications Ltd © Christian Fuchs, 2021 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road First edition published 2014. Reprinted twice 2014. London EC1Y 1SP Reprinted twice 2015 SAGE Publications Inc. Second edition published 2017. Reprinted three times 2018. 2455 Teller Road Reprinted 2020 Thousand Oaks, California 91320 This third edition published 2021 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research, Mathura Road private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the New Delhi 110 044 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may not be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, SAGE Publications Asia-Paci!c Pte Ltd or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of 3 Church Street the publisher, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, #10-04 Samsung Hub in accordance with the terms of licences issued by Singapore 049483 the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publisher. Editor: Michael Ainsley Library of Congress Control Number: 2020940791 Editorial assistant: Ozlem Merakli Production editor: Imogen Roome British Library Cataloguing in Publication data Copyeditor: Sarah Bury Proofreader: Leigh C. Smithson A catalogue record for this book is available from Indexer: Adam Pozner the British Library Marketing manager: Ben Sherwood Cover design: Lisa Harper-Wells Typeset by: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India Printed in the UK ISBN 978-1-5297-5275-5 ISBN 978-1-5297-5274-8 (pbk) At SAGE we take sustainability seriously. Most of our products are printed in the UK using responsibly sourced papers and boards. When we print overseas we ensure sustainable papers are used as measured by the PREPS grading system. We undertake an annual audit to monitor our sustainability. 00_FUCHS_3E_FM.indd 4 12/21/2020 3:31:37 PM INFLUENCER CAPITALISM: REIFIED 7 CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE AGE OF INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE, AND SNAPCHAT KEY QUESTIONS What is a social media influencer? How does influencer capitalism’s political economy work on Instagram and YouTube? Who are the winners and losers in influencer capitalism? Why is influencer capitalism ideological? What are the potentials of socialist influencers? How does socialist influencing differ from influencer capitalism? KEY CONCEPTS Influencer Reified consciousness Influencer capitalism Ideology Culture industry Socialist influencers 7.1 OVERVIEW Footballer Cristiano Renaldo, musician Ariana Grande, and professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson are among the individuals who have the highest number of followers on Instagram. They are well-known, prominent public figures. They are celebrities. But celebrities are undergoing changes in the age of digital capitalism and social media. In this chapter we are looking at some of these changes. 07_FUCHS_3E_CH_07.indd 173 12/21/2020 3:35:45 PM SOCIAL MEDIA: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION The emergence of celebrities as popular culture has to do with the capitalist culture indus- try that commodifies culture and with secularisation in modern societies where individuals are seeking worldly substitutes for worship (Rojek 2001, 13). We can add that fandom and celebrities are also enabled by individuals’ search for happiness in an unhappy, alienated world. Celebrity is the expression of humans being happy and recognised in a world where there are inequalities of power and a lack of recognition. The celebrity phenomenon is fans’ desire for social recognition. Fandom and celebrities to a certain degree also have to do with sexual desire. Celebrities are older than the culture industry and capitalism. Rojek (30) argues that Alexander the Great (356 BC–323 BC) was one of the first celebrities. In the twentieth century, celebrity and fan culture took place in the context of mass media (film, recorded music, television, radio) and reality TV. In the twenty-first century we have seen the emergence of Internet celebri- ties, which includes both traditional celebrities who become famous outside the Internet and have a presence on social media as well as influencers whose fame is ascribed to online fan communities that turn certain users into celebrities. Influencers are a type of Internet celeb- rity. They are “vocational, sustained, and highly branded social media stars” who are able to “attract and maintain a sizable following on their social media platforms” (Abidin 2018, 71). Many influencers use multiple platforms such as Facebook’s photo-sharing platform Instagram, Google/Alphabet’s YouTube, Snapchat, live streaming platforms such as Twitch (Amazon) and Periscope (Twitter), crowdfunding platforms such as Patreon, Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. What Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitch – platforms that are particularly popular among influencers – have in common is that they are manifestations of what Leaver, Highfield, and Abidin (2020, 216) call visual social media cultures: “The attention economy is primarily visual today, and Instagram remains synonymous with the visual zeitgeist.” What all of the different types of twentieth- and twenty-first-century celebrities have in common is that they are not self-made, but phenomena that exist in and through the capitalist culture industry. Most celebrities are supported, presented, mediated, and paid for by capital- ist companies that sell entertainment, lifestyles, brands, or ads. The celebrity industry manu- factures celebrities (Turner 2014). Celebrity “corresponds to the growth of capitalist relations of production and their implantation onto the sphere of cultural production” (Williamson 2016, 154) and is “a form of fame commensurate with capitalist society” (1). Celebrity is a cultural dimension of capitalism. YouTube is the world’s second most accessed Internet platform, and Instagram is the 28th most used one.1 Google/Alphabet owns YouTube. Instagram is part of Facebook’s empire. YouTube and Instagram are part of Google and Facebook’s duopoly of online advertising. They make significant contributions to the profits of these two global Internet giants. Snapchat is a multimedia app operated by the Californian company Snap Inc. It was founded in 2011. On Snapchat, one can share pictures and short videos that are up to ten seconds long with followers. These “snaps” are presented to them for a chosen time period, between one and ten seconds. A story is made up of a number of snaps. Any story disappears from a user profile after 24 hours. Snapchat lives through and practises the culture of speed, 1 http://alexa.com/topsites, Alexa Top 500 Sites on the Web, accessed on 6 October 2019. 174 07_FUCHS_3E_CH_07.indd 174 12/21/2020 3:35:45 PM INFLUENCER CAPITALISM superficiality, and ephemerality that is typical for contemporary capitalism. In 2017, Snap Inc. became a publicly traded company. As with most other social media platforms, targeted adver- tising is Snapchat’s capital accumulation model. At the time of writing this chapter, Snapchat had not made any profits. Its total losses were US$ 459 million in 2016, US$ 3.4 billion in 2017, US$ 1.3 billion in 2018, and US$ 1.0 billion in 2019.2 Platforms that design high speed and short attention span into their platforms have more problems generating ad profits than other platforms. The future will show when and whether Snapchat becomes profitable. Snapchat is popular among young people (eMarketer 2018; Pew Research Center 2019). YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are significant not just in terms of the appeal they have for young people but in another respect too. They are the paradigmatic platforms of influencer capitalism. In a 2019 survey, one-third of US and UK children aged between 8 and 12 answered that they wanted to become vloggers/YouTubers (Berger 2019). In the Future Shopper 2019 Survey, “[m]ore than half (55%) of our […] survey participants [aged 6–16, N=4,003] told us they would want to purchase a product if they saw their favourite Instagram or YouTube star wearing or using it” (Cox 2019). In the age group of 12–15 year-old British YouTube users, 52 percent followed YouTube influencers in 2017 (Ofcom 2018, 6). Influencer capitalism is not a type of capitalism but an ideology that claims that by being active on social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube there are great opportunities for becoming wealthy and famous. Influencer capitalism is the dream, fantasy, and desire of users to become celebrities that accumulate a wealth of social relations, money, influence, likes, positive comments, etc. Influencer capitalism is the online manifestation of the American Dream’s ideological claim that in capitalism everyone has an equal opportunity to make a career, from a dishwasher to a billionaire, by having a good idea and believing in themselves. While the USA is often depicted as the “land of opportunities”, the gurus of neoliberal Internet individualism present Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube as the online spaces of opportunities. This chapter provides an analysis of the foundations of influencer capitalism. It shows that becoming a famous influencer is not by chance, but due to the capitalist operations of talent agencies, media companies, venture capitalists, and advertisers. Section 7.2 discusses influencer capitalism’s political economy.

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